Pocket-lint got word tis month from Acer that the Acer CloudMobile smartphone had received the iF design award 2012, in recognition of outstanding achievement in design.

Bravo indeed, we thought - especially as we'd never even heard of it. So we were surprised that the handset got a relatively low-key introduction over in Barcelona. In fact, we had to go digging on the Android booth just to get our hands on one. But that wasn't so much of a chore, because there were free Ice Cream Sandwiches (the food, not the OS) on offer after all.

First impressions? It's a super svelte looking device whose 9.9mm thickness appears much thinner in the hand, thanks to to its sharp edges. And the back panel is easily the nicest on any phone that we've seen at the mobile expo this year, it just oozes coolness.

The model on show at the Android booth was a bit buggy (very early version) so we can't comment too much on performance at this point. What we do know is that the finished article should be pretty impressive as it is powered by a dual core Qualcomm 1.5GHz 8260A CPU, has 1GB of RAM and is running Android 4.0.

The 4.3-inch IPS HD display has a "zero air gap design" - which we're told means no resistance whatsoever. It certainly looked very sharp and the viewing angles are amazing.

According to its makers, the Acer CloudMobile is the first smartphone to offer AcerCloud technology, and it "enhances mobile productivity by providing seamless document management". This should make it easier to share your pictures and videos from its 8-megapixel camera.

No word on a release date as of yet but, as ever, we'll keep you posted.